The social acceptance of owning a plane.

I thought in the US, people were generally supportive and in admiration of anyone’s wealth, in whatever form that might be. And that is was only in Europe, and certainly in the UK that jealousy or other ugly personality attributes that came out.

But your right. Some of my friends said, you’re OK, you must be loaded, you have a pilots license or you own a plane. But I was never dishonest, I’d say well yeah, but I part own it with 3 others, it’s older than you are, and my house, car, collection of pets, and your other qualities of life are less great than yours with your 3 bed house with a garden, 2 year old car and your 3 Labradors or whatever. I’d post photos on Facebook of any ‘interesting’ looking flight, and I’d checkin at any airfield I went. I always am aware of those less privileged or having issues, so I’d never big it up, and let the photos speak for themselves,

And if like me they’re patently fed up of seeing baby pictures and goo goo messages, but instead don’t like plane picture, well find the ‘unfollow’ option or just indulge yourself in the other trivialities there are to be found :-)

PiperArcher, I think Adam must be writing of his experiences in Europe, in the spirit of EuroGA. If he’s running into that kind of thing in the US he must be mixing with a atypical subculture. People in the US just think I’m odd to enjoy flying, not wealthy. I can handle that and don’t alter anything I might say about flying based on the audience. The same thing works in Europe if you have the discipline to talk about flying and planes as they are, and don’t play along with the snob game.

This does surprise me coming from the US. In Europe, it is very much the case like that.

The way I go about it is education. I break what is another taboo besides having an airplane and talking about it: I talk about money.

When I got my current plane, it was difficult to keep “secret” even if I had wanted to. First of all, it is based where I work, so people saw me. 2ndly, the change of hands was in the newspaper all pilots read.

Result was, I got attacked quite severely at work and in private life, like always when one does something which is associated with filthy rich capitalist pigs. Up to “I hope you’ll crash with it”, to some folk saying, “if you have THAT much money, why the heck do you work here?”

So I put it on the table.

Turns out, I paid less for my plane than most of my colleagues paid for their 2nd hand cars. The guy with his Winnebago could have bought 5 of my planes. I had some folk who did not believe me check planecheck, all airplanes, sort by price.

The reaction was, oh really, this is not more expensive then my caravan, my harley, my midlife crisis car.

I told them, that travelling to our branch office in the Ticino from Zürich would take 35 minutes, as opposed to 3 hours by train and going there and back would use about 60 liters of fuel. So I could go to a meeting there and be back before lunch and put in another honest half day work while they sit for 6 hours on the train.

I showed them the planning which goes into a flight like this, started doing talks about the technics of these planes using my plane as an example. What do we do, how does it work, what do we need.

Then I started taking some folk along. People who wanted to, as opposed to such who said they would “never” fly with me. Those who did came raving about the experience, every one of them. In the end, buying the plane and talking about it openly rised my acceptance and the respect people showed towards me. Those who still go green with envy I can live without.

I think the biggest problem in society’s perception of light GA is the totally outlandish ideas people have about it. No, we do not fly biz jets, no we do not pay “5000 £” per landing, no we do not burn “Tons” of fuel in order to fly a 500 NM trip. No, our planes do NOT damage the ozone layer and we do not spread chemtrails. Moreover, we do not pursue nor do we aim to get supermodel girlfriends to fly in those planes, in other words, we are using an efficient and fast means of personal transport.

When I bought my plane in 2009, even in the flying forum I frequent in Switzerland there were people who were envious until I put the figures on the table. Since, some people in this forum I know of have bought own planes, some of which I helped with sitting down their wifes and talking to them about it, went with them to look at planes e.tc. I started posting trip reports and made a homepage, where I post trips and other details about ownership.

I think this is the only way we can be GA ambassadors and overcome prejudice about what we do. Apart from the effect on your own personal relationships with people around you, it will educate people about GA, open some peoples tolerance of it and maybe even get some people involved.

So all in all, plane ownership has been positive for me, after a very rocky start. But as I had known this already from my first ownership, I was prepared. I wish that more people would come out about it and say it as it is and not a millionaires privilege.

I think this is the only way we can be GA ambassadors

Yes, its a good thing. I took an 18 year old German kid flying yesterday and let him fly a bit. He’s more the male model type (!) but I think I changed his perception of flying. Earlier in the week a young guy who works for me who might like to learn flying if he wasn’t already too busy with other hobbies. Maybe he’ll remember the experience later.

It is another reason I am happy to fly a rather modest plane. I’ve stopped talking to outsiders about my “ultralight” – that makes them think of a 2-stroke powered lawn mower with some bamboo sticks attached, covered with garbage bin liners. When I speak of a modest two-seater aircraft, the occupants sitting side by side in an enclosed cabin, and travelling at an honest 150 km/h while burning 12-15 litres per hour, I hear little criticism. When I disclose the list price of 45.000 €, even more silence. As someone else said, a typical boat or mobilhome is more expensive, both to acquire and to operate – and that comes in scope for more people. As yet someone else said, most people don’t know what it is really about.

I think most people have the ability to see and understand the difference between a biz jet and a oldish propeller plane. My experience is that the more ignorant they are, the more they look at a typical SEP as something only dedicated enthusiasts would get involved with, while a jet is something only rich people can afford. A jet is a mini 737 for private use (or in some cases a full size 737), a SEP is a “left over” from 1930, small, noisy, dangerous.

When I disclose the list price of 45.000 €, even more silence. As someone else said, a typical boat or mobilhome is more expensive, both to acquire and to operate – and that comes in scope for more people.

Exactly. To be snobbish, only a jet will do, because only a jet is associated with the “rich and famous”. A stylish helicopter may also do the trick

Seriously, the only time I have ever gotten in a situation described by AdamF, was when talking to a guy from Greece some 20 years ago.

Just get into boats and you’ll realize how dirt cheap airplanes are!

I must admit that I really don’t care much what others think about it, especially if they’re not my close friends. The good friends, on the other hand, know me and they know why I fly and they understand it.

I would never discuss my private finances with others to get their approval for the things I do. I think that’s a mistake. On the other hand I have no problem talking about money and I think I am generous twds others. People who know me KNOW that I don’t fly to “show off” or to impress somebody. So i never have these problems.

I also never charge anybody I fly for gas and I offer it to anybody I know (the last one was my young Iraqi haircutter and his wife) – but I refuse to feel guilty for the things I do with the money I earn. I got a comment or two when I bought the Cirrus, like “your business is going well, huh”. But those were not unfriendly.

I love to take people flying, I explain the plane to them, I introduce them to all aspects of flying – and I made four people do their PPL!

In Germany it’s common that a dentist or company owner drives to work in his wife’s VW and leaves the Porsche in the garage at home because he doesn’t want his employees to know. I never liked that attitude and I wouldn’t want to live that way.

I post pictures of my plane and my flights all the time :-) If I couldn’t do that or feel guilty about it – I’d quit!